Finding who do your friends snap the most just got easier as Snapchat replaced the "Best Friends" list with "Friend Emojis, giving users a sneak peek into their friends' social habits.
On Monday, April 6, photo messaging app Snapchat rolled out a major emoji update that might end up ruining a few friendships in a very public way.
Back in January, the ephemeral messaging app peeved users when it yanked its popular "best friends" feature, which showed the people you snapped with the most, and now Snapchat's new update that replaces the feature with emoji characters, will apparently "change your life."
Bustle noted that so far people have expressed mixed feelings about the special emoji update. The big question is whether the update would really help people keep track of their besties, and their besties' besties or would it turn out to be a devious portal via which those relationships could come apart.
The new emojis were developed in order to replace the previous "best friends" feature, Business Insider noted Monday. The "best friends" feature was reportedly trashed back in January.
According to a statement on its Snap Discover feed, the company confirmed that starting April 6, a bunch of emojis will be popping in users' Snapchat friends list.
"No, they weren't just our favorite ones," Snapchat said of the emojis.
In the statement, the company revealed that the emojis actually mean something extremely important, further explaining that they break down user's whole squad. In addition, the app update also gives introduction to two other features:
- A new low-light camera mode that enables enhanced shots snapped in darker settings, and
- a section called "Needs Love" now appears under "Recents," encouraging users to send snaps to people they have not interacted with in a while.
The Los Angeles, Calif-based company used photos of Beyoncé along with other celebs to explain each emoji, according to Forbes.
- A gold heart, for example, means two users snap each other more than they snap any other person.
- A frowning emoji indicates two users send more snaps to the same third user than they do to any other user.
- An sunglass-donning emoji implies two people have a best friend in common and send many snaps to this person.
- A smiling emoji means a friend is amid the people a user snaps most often.
- A smirking emoji indicates the friend sends many snaps to the user; however the user does not send many snaps to the friend.
- Fire emoji implies two users have been snapping each other constantly.
Snapchat's latest round closed last December, when the messaging service raised $485 million, giving it a valuation of over $10 billion. According to reports earlier this month, Chinese e-commerce Company, Alibaba plans to invest $200 million in Snapchat at a valuation of $15 billion. In March, Snapchat targeted to raise about $500 million in its next round, Bloomberg reported, citing sources close to the matter.
Snapchat's security and privacy policies have fallen under scrutiny for years. Back in 2013, the FTC launched an investigation challenging Snapchat's claim that it offered disappearing photos and videos. Snapchat resolved it with the FTC, creating a far-reaching privacy policy to protect user information.
The new emoji feature is the current in a series of measures indicating Snapchat is getting more serious about privacy and security.
